Ichiwa-kai
The
Ichiwa-kai (一å'Œä¼š) was a
yakuza gang based in
Osaka,
Japan.
It was formed on
June 13,
1984 when
Hiroshi Yamamoto, a top lieutenant in the
Yamaguchi-gumi, broke from that gang to form his own organization with over 10,000 members. The split stemmed from professional jealousy: Yamamoto had been seen as a contender for the role of
kumicho, or Godfather, in the Yamaguchi-gumi, and was enraged when a rival,
Masahisa Takenaka, was chosen.
In
1985, the Ichiwa-kai faction sent a team of hitmen to assassinate Takenaka at his mistress's home in
Suita, Osaka. The killing of the Yamaguchi Godfather sparked a
Kansai-wide yakuza war between the two groups in which over 20 gangsters were killed. The Yamaguchi-gumi eventually won what became known as the
Yama-Ichi War, but it proved to be a
Pyrrhic victory as many of its members were arrested in the process.
Most of the Ichiwa-kai defectors were eventually allowed to return to the Yamaguchi-gumi.
Yamamoto retired, and the Ichiwa-kai dissolved in March,
1989.
